Innokenty Annensky
October myth

I am miserable. I can’t bear
It. I hear a blind man’s steps:
Above me all night long he
Stumbles about on the roof.

And I do not know if these are
My tears that axe burning my
Heart, or are those which the
Blind man sheds without reply.

Which flow from his dull eyes
Down his faded cheeks, and
In the dead hour of midnight
Spread over the window panes...

Translated by R. H. Morrison